Looks like the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues to be busy in the Richmond area, following on a workplace enforcement raid in Richmond City at the construction site of a federal courthouse in May. Of note, the following press release from ICE mentions that Attorney General Bob McDonnell played a significant role once again in ensuring that criminal illegal aliens are being removed from the Commonwealth. Earlier this year, Attorney General McDonnell launched an initiative with ICE to process for deportation criminal aliens who had been convicted of sex crimes and either had been released back into our communities, or were scheduled to be released.

RICHMOND, Va. - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents here, in close partnership with local law enforcement agencies, arrested 46 street gang members and associates during a three-day effort that ended today in an ongoing national program called “Operation Community Shield.”

The success of the operation was the result of an extensive collaborative between ICE Gang Investigation Unit Special Agents and multiple law enforcement agencies throughout the Richmond metropolitan area including: Virginia State Police, Virginia Office of the Attorney General, United States Attorney of the Eastern District of Virginia, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Department of State Diplomatic Security Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Chesterfield County Police Department, Chesterfield County Probation and Parole, United States Secret Service, Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General and the United States Postal Inspection Service.

Of those arrested, 20 were known gang members and 21 were identified gang associates affiliated with the MS-13, Sur-13, Latin Kings, and Vatos Locos street gangs. Those arrested were from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico. Five search warrants were conducted and numerous cases are being presented for federal and/or state prosecution.

“Drawing on our combined investigative authorities, ICE’s coordinated efforts with federal and local law enforcement agencies resulted in the identification and arrest of 46 gang members and associates from Virginia communities this week,” said Mark McGraw, special agent in charge of ICE’s Office of Investigations in Washington, D.C. “By working together we underscore our multi-jurisdictional commitment to identify, target and arrest violent transnational gang members whose activities are often as brazen as they are deadly and let them know they are not welcome in our country.”

“I applaud the efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in this ICE initiative to apprehend dangerous gang members in the Richmond Metropolitan area,” said Virginia State Attorney Bob McDonnell. “The successful arrests of more than 40 gang members, who have violated our nation’s immigration laws, illustrate the positive work that can be done when law enforcement agencies work together. The Office of the Attorney General will continue to participate in efforts such as this to ensure the safety of the citizens of the Commonwealth.”

“The Virginia State Police are committed to ridding our communities of criminals, especially gang members and their associates,” said Colonel W. Steven Flaherty, Virginia State Police Superintendent. “No community of individuals deserves to be preyed upon by gangs and their criminal enterprises. This multi-agency operation sends a strong message concerning Virginia’s zero tolerance of gangs and their activities.”

Operation Community Shield is a national law enforcement initiative that partners ICE with other federal, state and local law enforcement combining resources, authorities and expertise in an effort to target members of violent street gangs. Since ICE began Operation Community Shield in February 2005, more than 8,000 gang members belonging to more than 700 different gangs have been arrested.

To report suspicious activity, members of the public should call the ICE’s toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423. This hotline is staffed around the clock.

Citizens in Richmond, Chesterfield and Henrico Counties might want to think about getting in the game here. If you’ve got this many illegal aliens who are members of MS-13, Surenos-13, the Latin Kings, and Vatos Locos, getting something along the lines of the Rule of Law Resolution in place is long overdue. For every gang-banger ICE hauled in, there are lots more that escaped their attention. We can’t expect Bob McDonnell to do all of our work for us, can we?

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I thought “Gang Bang” was slang for gang rape. Is that not the case any more? Amazing how words and phrases change meaning over time. I take from the post that the term “Gang Bangers” now means members of street gangs, without reference to sex crimes or any other particular crime. I can’t really tell from the press release, aside from gang membership, what foul deeds these guys perpetrated.

this should help you out nova….the term “gang-banger” is sometimes attributed to gang members but really that was around the early 90’s or so since I last heard that term. the wikipedia article should spell it out for ya’ since the actual meaning of the term is a bit risque

It may be that I’ve become a little jaded. I’ve seen so many “catch and release” follow up stories that I sometimes wonder how much of this is real and how much is for show.

Follow ups report that sometimes as many as half are released for various reasons (humanitarian, pending immigration hearing or voluntary self-deportation) - never to be seen again. But even more frustrating is the pat line - “the business is cooperating with authorities and has not been charged……”

I might have a little more faith in the “system,” if I started reading follow up stories about IRS auditing the books, the owner doing some serious time and paying some painful fines.

Our border is a revolving door for the criminal illegal aliens. They self-deport only when the “law” is on their tail, then return (usually with little or no problem) when the “heat is off.”

I want to see some real action! Something that makes national news and scares businesses into compliance.

These are the people you support, like the guy who raped the ten year old in Manassas. You think it is conservative value to to cheat the system and then benefit from it, so there you go, you are left wtih a bunch of illegals who are not hard working, but just scum.

I agree, Junes. I’m sure that the large percentage of these so-called “gang bangers” will be back on the street banging gangs, or doing whatever gang bangers do, in short order. That’s part of Guvnor Goober’s program to “Internationalize Virginia” [his words of praise to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Virginia].

I rented a DVD called “The Gang Bang Chronicles” the other day and brought it home to watch with a group of political activists, over a discussion on the effects of gang violence. It wasn’t what I thought it was and caused quite a stir.

Same thing happened with “Annabelle Chong’s 1001 Man Gang Bang”. I thought Annabelle Chong was a reporter for PBS or something, but after watching the DVD I don’t think so. When I tried to explain to the clerk what types of films I wanted - gang bang stuff - he pointed me to a wall of “Bukkake” DVDs. I looked through them but I couldn’t find anything that looked relevant.

We have two problems in this country. 1. Illegal aliens. 2. Nuclear waste. Solution: spread the nuclear waste along the entire southern border at least three feet deep and twenty feet wide. They may come across but they will wish to hell they hadn’t. If the northern border becomes a problem, same solution.

They all whined of the injustice of it all. Hey, if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime. And it is laughable that these people speak of breaking apart families when most of them left their families behind to come and trespass here. These people are sick, and I’m tired…of them.

Happy 4th Maryland - we just took a giant leap this week to regaining our independence once again! I can’t wait for ICE to drop the hammer in Montgomery County. That will drive CASA and their ilk into an absolute frenzy. And the Montgomery Clowny Council will be aghast at the inhumanity of it all. How fun.

Mary-ole-land is the head of the hydra now, at least on the East Coast.

Here’s a quote from CASA head Gustavo Torres re: the Anne Arundel raid from the Baltimore Sun. I haven’t read the Sun all that much until recently, but from what I have read, and especially comparing their article on the raid to that of the POST, they are even more in the tank for illegals than the POST!

“We thought that in Maryland that we had a more progressive state, but in Anne Arundel County the county executive is doing something that is unbelievable,” Torres said

That Baltimore Sun story indicates some of the guys arrested had paperwork submitted and were here illegally while they waited to become citizens.

Ideally this is a check that should be made. If someone submits paperwork, check that they’re not here currently illegally - if so, deport them. And check on this while the paperwork is in process also.

We should not be giving free passes to half of El Salvador the way we tend to. How about more diversity of the citizenship giveaways? Our elitist politicians keep letting El Salvadorans in en masse despite the fact that their home country is in pretty good shape at this point. To the naked eye it appears to be an attempt to repopulate the DC area. I mean, they’re literally taking over neighborhoods and our government keeps rubber-stamping them in.

Not funny, CoM, just sound policy. Think about it. As I’ve said before, massive illegal immigration creates tremendous security and social issues, forces immigrant labor into an underground neverland where people don’t have drivers’ licenses, insurance, bank accounts, and makes efforts at border security a joke. Comprehensive federal action is essential to get a grip on this. The Congress has been hiding for years on this and it’s unconscionable.

What is funny, is that you have posted in favor of “compressive” immigration reform in the past, and specifically the Senate bills that included amnesty for these very type of people. Stop trying to play both sides.

You have argued that we should reward “working” illegals. Well, how do we know which of these illegals had jobs and which ones did not? So, as you can see, how very stupid your argument is. We simply need to get rid of all illegals.

CoM you silly fellow, I was right - you WERE sleeping in class. I’ve never supported amnesty for anyone, let alone criminal law violators. Nor have I ever advocated “rewarding working illegals”. I have no idea what you’re talking about with your comment about “how do we know which of these illegals had jobs and which ones did not?” What the devil are you talking about, guy?

My position is that federal immigration policy is a mess. It has to be fixed. I supported penalties for illegal immigrants as a precondition for allowing those with no criminal records to stay on. No amnesty there. I oppose your solution of “get[ting] rid of all illegals” if by that you mean mass deportation or worse. I support a system that encourages large scale legal immigration into the United States at all skill levels, particularly but not exclusively at the tech/med/research levels and that provides a strong incentive (meaning minimal bureaucracy) to cherry pick the best and brightest the world over and bring them here to stay as citizens. I support the maximum possible free movement of labor and capital across borders consistent with security concerns. I support bringing non-violent immigrants out of the underground economy out where we can see, tax, monitor and protect them against exploitation. I oppose silly local pols scamming yobs with demagogic, fiscally irresponsible, constitutionally corrosive, law enforcement degrading over-commitments on local action.

Do you really pay attention to what you write? You say you do not support amnesty, yet want to give Citizenship to illegals. Your double talk is pretty amazing. What is breaking immigration laws? Working here illegally? Driving without a license and or insurance? Do you not consider those to be crimes? Well, you would be the only one to think that.

How about those illegals who stole your identity to gain employment? Yup, no sense in punishing those folks. Under the leadership of the great “Nova Scout”, those folks would be the toast of the Nation. Good thing that identity theft is a non violent crime, and does not cost the victim any time or money trying to fix their credit issues.

Again, I ask how is cheating the system and benefiting from it a conservative value?

If you have something that I want, I suppose under your “system” of “flow” I should be able to break into your home and take what I want. To you, since that is not a “violent” crime, I should not only be able to take what I want, but I should be rewarded for it.

Of course local elected officials should protect the people who they are responsible for.

The 1986 approach was better than nothing in 1986, but they let it go to rack and ruin by not keeping up with it in the out years. I wouldn’t object to a better plan, Greg. But I haven’t seen it proposed here. I sense that everyone here is solidly behind me in my view that the current federal system is no good. I hardly hear a kind word said about it.

I wouldn’t rule out the Becker/Posner idea of auctioning off or selling available slots, as opposed to levying fines against scofflaws who are here illegally and who want to stay. Any plan that’s in the interest of the United States would have to have certain elements. Those include streamlining the application and citizenship process, making emigration to the United States attractive, particulalry in the high skill trades/professions, dealing with the millions of illegals who are here now, sorting out the criminals from the hard-workers, and ensuring that the borders are secure while at the same time having positive incentives to cross legally.

How do you suppose we go about the vetting of illegals to ensure they are not “criminals”? Do we just take their word for it? How about those illegals(I know it is hard to think they would engage in such behavior) that use multiple identities?

Again, how do we know the illegal who is “hard working” is not a gang banger?

You say you are against deportation, what would you do with the illegals who are not hard working and are just common criminals? Invite them over to your house and keep watch over them? Or, would you deport them?

Deportation of course works well, and when an illegal is caught by either a local, State, or the Feds, they should be deported. No, “mass” deportation there, just making the folks who break the law pay the price for their law breaking.

Of course the immigration system is screwed up. We have a Government that does not enforce the laws we have, that is why it is screwed up.

The fact that 1 in 10 people living in Virginia are foreign born is pretty clear we do have a very good system of allowing legal immigrants into the Country.

COM: Your mind seems to have teeth missing in the gearing. It whirs along OK for a bit and then breaks down. Where do you get this “hard working” criterion? Seems impossible to work with and I suspect it just reflects some misunderstanding you’ve picked up along the way. I don’t have any idea how you could base a system on how hard people work. I hardly work at all except in manic bursts and would probably get tossed, on that standard

Of course you deport criminals who are here illegally. That has always been the law and the policy, but the resources to do it have been lacking. I’m not against deportation of aliens who commit crimes when they’re here - no one’s against that (except perhaps the criminal who is being deported). I am against mass deportation of the millions of illegals who are here and contributing to the economy. If there were 20 or 30 of these folks, maybe you could manage, but the reality is that we’ve let this situation get completely out of control to the point where mass deportation would be a massive and historic moral, ethical and policy debacle for the United States at a time when our stock is at a pretty low ebb in any event. I don’t think decent Americans would want their country to be part of any such thing. I’d penalize them for the illegal entry and get them processed legally as quickly as possible. My primary objective would be to get rid of the underground economy and lifestyle and bring that out where you can see it. Virtually every other issue would resolve itself if that were done.

Again, do you really read what you write? You posted this about the “hard working” illegals.

I wouldn’t rule out the Becker/Posner idea of auctioning off or selling available slots, as opposed to levying fines against scofflaws who are here illegally and who want to stay. Any plan that’s in the interest of the United States would have to have certain elements. Those include streamlining the application and citizenship process, making emigration to the United States attractive, particulalry in the high skill trades/professions, dealing with the millions of illegals who are here now, sorting out the criminals from the hard-workers, and ensuring that the borders are secure while at the same time having positive incentives to cross legally.

You are for deportation, yet against mass deportation. If deportation is done one at a time or the whole lot is tossed out at the same time, is there really a difference?

How would you “legalize” them? Provide them Citizenship?

How would you sort out the “hard working” and the ones you consider to be criminals?

I thought we did but I was wrong, I have it in writing from Chief Skinner’s office. The gang signage we have seen in Manassas is not an indication of gang presence, rather the work of children at play, you know playing like gang members. Kind of like we used to play cops and robbers, or cowboys and indians when we were kids. According to MCPD this is absolutely innocent childs play.
I felt so much better after I was informed of this by Chief Skinner’s office, I just can not express how relieved I was, and am.

MCPD even wrote letters to my neighbors saying I was wrong and just overreacting, you know, kind of neurotic or something.

I went and had my head checked out and you know what my doctor said?
“I see, you have a vivid imagination, you see a gang problem in Manassas, everyone knows there is no such thing, it’s all in your head, here, take sixteen of these 9mm capsules with you and use as directed, then maybe you will feel better, provided you survive”.

Yup, there is no gang issue in the City as long as the Police do not want to recognize it. The fact the Chief has blamed part of the rise in crime over the last few years on assaults that are manly gang member on gang member should also not fool us into thinking the City has a gang issue.

CoM: I recommend you re-think your attraction to the “hard-working”criterion. It would be very difficult to work with as a legal standard.

I think an appropriate visa would be the right approach for most. Don’t think your idea of citizenship is necessary except for those who have been here for a good long while or who have specialized skills.

You and the other supporters of criminals love to describe illegals as hard working, so I’m just trying to use language you are familiar with. Of course you avoid any and all direct questions. I realize you are slow on the up take, but you should at the very least be able to answer very simple and direct questions.

CoM: Some illegals are hard-working, some are not. I’m not particularly hard-working (except in spurts)and, purely by accident, no merit to it at all, I’ve lived here all my life. I suppose there could be a hard-working criminal, so, just to soothe you, I’ll go on record as being against his becoming a citizen (or if he’s a citizen, I’m for him going to jail). I love to answer intelligent questions, because I enjoy them and they make me think. Otherwise, I’m very selective about whose questions I choose to answer.

At what point do you draw the line at giving them a pass? Many people who support illegals say all illegals are hard working and productive members of society. They simply refuse to admit illegals are bad for the Country.

No doubt some illegals are bad for the country and others are very helpful.
In the aggregate, illegal immigration, whatever its other problems (and I have frequently acknowledged that there are many such problems, not the least of which that it makes folks like CoM easy marks for local political demagogues who don’t give a hoot for what’s good for the country or the community as long as they can fleece some votes off the yobs), is a net economic plus for the country. A well-regulated, well designed and well enforced federal system would keep all those benefits, add a few, and lose most, if not all of the costs.

What is bad for the country is a federal regime that doesn’t work - it fails to provide border security, it leaves immigrants vulnerable to exploitation, it inspires disrespect for federal authority, and it doesn’t maximize economic growth, efficiency and productive migration.

You are just plain dense, if you think illegals are an economic plus for the Country. How can any criminal be positive? Any “yob” that thinks illegals are a positive get stuck with mealy mouthed elected officials who take them for a ride and stick the local population with increased costs and a more dangerous neighborhood.

Just exactly are the illegals in your opinion that are “helpful”. The ones that rape ten year olds? The ones that murder? The ones that ruin people’s credit?

We have a system in place to deport illegals and that is a fine system as long as we do not have “yobs” in place that support rapists and killers.

Do you realize just how ironice your last paragraph is? You are bascally saying it is wrong for people tobreak the law to take advantage of people breaking the law. Seems to me that anyone who breaks the law, gets what they deserve.

How do you depot 12 million people. That is easy, the Federal Government needs to do their jobs and that will scare many illegals off. The Federal Government needs to enforce work place rules and start to punish companies that hire illegals. Between enforcing current laws, the illegal alien situation will be taken care of.

Local and State Governments can do their parts by passing laws to discourage illegals from staying. Laws such as overcrowding ordnances, not providing social services to anyone but Citizens and legal immigrants, etc, will do wonders in sending the message that illegals are not welcomed.

As I said, if you know the local Police department is going to run a drunk stop in town, are you going to be stupid enough to drink and drive and risk getting caught?

I knew you true colors would come through sooner or later. You are just like all the other pro-illegal aliens folks, who claim to have an issue with illegals, but then never support any attempt to remove them, and in fact want to reward illegals for their law breaking.

Would you want to reward any other type of criminal? Would you want to reward a company that broke the law in a business transaction that you were involved in?